Agatha Webb eBook

“Ah,” exclaimed the latter, as his eye
fell on the paper fluttering in the other’s
hand, “I expected money, not paper.”

“The paper is good,” answered Frederick,
drawing him swiftly out of the house. “It
has my father’s signature upon it.”

“Your father’s signature?”

“Yes.”

Wattles gave it a look, then slowly shook his head
at Frederick.

“Is it as well done as the one you tried to
pass off on Brady?”

Frederick cringed, and for a moment looked as if the
struggle was too much for him. Then he rallied
and eying Wattles firmly, said:

“You have a right to distrust me, but you are
on the wrong track, Wattles. What I did once,
I can never do again; and I hope I may live to prove
myself a changed man. As for that check, I will
soon prove its value in your eyes. Follow me
up-stairs to my father.”

His energy—­the energy of despair, no doubt
seemed to make an impression on the other.

“You might as well proclaim yourself a forger
outright, as to force your father to declare this
to be his signature,” he observed.

“I know it,” said Frederick.

“Yet you will run that risk?”

“If you oblige me.”

Wattles shrugged his shoulders. He was a magnificent-looking
man and towered in that old colonial hall like a youthful
giant.

“I bear you no ill will,” said he.
“If this represents money, I am satisfied, and
I begin to think it does. But listen, Sutherland.
Something has happened to you. A week ago you
would have put a bullet through my head before you
would have been willing to have so compromised yourself.
I think I know what that something is. To save
yourself from being thought guilty of a big crime you
are willing to incur suspicion of a small one.
It’s a wise move, my boy, but look out!
No tricks with me or my friendship may not hold.
Meantime, I cash this check to-morrow.”
And he swung away through the night with a grand-opera
selection on his lips.

XIV

A FINAL TEMPTATION

Frederick looked like a man thoroughly exhausted when
the final echo of this hateful voice died away on
the hillside. For the last twenty hours he had
been the prey of one harrowing emotion after another,
and human nature could endure no more without rest.

But rest would not come. The position in which
he found himself, between Amabel and the man who had
just left, was of too threatening a nature for him
to ignore. But one means of escape presented
itself. It was a cowardly one; but anything was
better than to make an attempt to stand his ground
against two such merciless antagonists; so he resolved
upon flight.

Packing up a few necessaries and leaving a letter
behind him for his father, he made his way down the
stairs of the now darkened house to a door opening
upon the garden. To his astonishment he found
it unlocked, but, giving little heed to this in his
excitement, he opened it with caution, and, with a
parting sigh for the sheltering home he was about
to leave forever, stepped from the house he no longer
felt worthy to inhabit.